Dynasty: The Glorious Strategist (Dynasty Saga Book 3) (32 page)

“Not really sure,” Lymee admitted. “I would like to make one central military that will be comprised of people from all Dynasties. Then I would like to limit the size of the forces the actual Dynasties themselves can raise. Make them only large enough for defense.”

“That would leave them open to attack from other Dynasties,” Shu pointed out.

“Not if their forces were also limited,” Lymee reminded. “Besides. There should be no such thing as worrying about other Dynasties attacking one another. Where I am from I lived in a country that was a conglomeration of smaller governments that acted independent of each other but also under the rule of one large government and never once in my entire life was I worried that one of the neighboring states was going to invade mine. People thought of themselves first as members of their nation and then of their state second.”

“Sounds nice,” Shu nodded. “But the Dynasties Lords will never go for limiting their power.”

“I know,” Lymee sighed. “But I still would like to try.”   

“It’s a noble goal,” Shu nodded. “But that does not answer my previous question. What is the ideal Kingdom that you wish to make?”

Lymee bit down on the inside of her cheeks as she thought it over. What did she want? Did she want to try to recreate America? In many ways maybe but then she was not convinced that America was so perfect that it needed to be remade. But Lymee was probably thinking too small term. She had the rare opportunity not to only reform this country and government but to remake it into anything she wanted. Into the perfect ideal.  

“Shangri-La,” Lymee said more offhandedly than anything.

“What?” Shu frowned unfamiliar with the word.

“It was a fictional city in a book,” Lymee explained. “It was supposed to be a utopia where all walks of life and all cultures came together and lived in peace. If possible I would like to build such a world with Shangri-La as the capital.”

“Sounds ambitious,” Shu stated. “As well as a bit idealistic.”

“It is,” Lymee nodded. “But they say that you should shoot for the moon.” A smile flashed across Lymee’s face as she thought of Alia. “That way even if you miss you will still be amongst the stars.”

“How does one even reach the moon?” Shu asked.

“With a rocket,” Lymee said simply. “A very, very large rocket.”

CHAPTER 11

Lymee stood with her back to the door as she waited. She was standing in a large shrine like room with a large statue of some kind making up the altar.  Lymee was unsure what the statue was supposed to be of as it looked more like a work of abstract art than anything else. That being said there was something nice about the piece that was appealing to the eye.

Kitsune flicked her tail across Lymee’s nose making her smile.

“Yes, yes,” Lymee said reaching up and scratching the fox. “Actually,” Lymee looked down at the fox. “Why don’t you come here,” she cradled her arms for Kitsune to jump into. “Wouldn’t want her to see you and tip her off too soon.”

Seeming to need no more convincing the fox rose to her feet and leapt off of Lymee’s shoulder and landed in her arm snuggling herself into Lymee’s arms.

It had not actually occurred to Lymee until recently that Kitsune did not seem to shed any hair. Which was nice considering the very elaborate and colorful dress she was currently wearing. She was sure Yunna or whomever was forced to do her laundry would go insane trying to deal with all the fox hair everywhere.

After a few moments there was a loud clank as the doors behind Lymee started to creak open. Their guest had finally arrived it seemed.

Lymee did not turn around as the small precession of people started walking into the room. Lymee could hear the soft footsteps behind her of at least six other people walking into lines with one person picking up the rear.

“My Lord, Empress Sun,” announced one of the shrine maidens. “Our Lady, Priestess Ling speaker for The Heavens.”

Lymee turned around at that point a very smug smile on her face. Just as she had assumed, there were two columns of women all dressed in the white and red outfits of Shrine Maidens. In their hands they were holding sticks with white paper chains attached to them making them look almost like palm palms. At the end of each column were two monks from the Temple. Lymee did not recognize either of them but that might be for the best.

“Empress Sun,” the woman in the center of the column dropped to her knees but did not bow her head all the way to the floor stopping about halfway. “It is truly an honor to meet the gift from The Heavens the illustrious Heavenly Fox. I am Priestess Ling. We have traveled far to crown you the next Empress.”

Lymee frowned as she looked down at the woman bowing in front of her.

The woman was quite striking in both appearance and presence. She seemed to exude both authority and charisma. Her long black hair was ordained with striking jewelry and her outfit was almost as elaborate at Lymee’s.

And she was definitely not the Priestess Ling that Lymee had saved last summer.

Lymee scanned the other women who all had their heads lowered their faces expressionless. But out of all of them there was one face Lymee did recognize. Completely ignoring the woman bowing in front of her Lymee walked towards the familiar shrine maiden stopping only a few feet away.

“A bit of a childish test don’t you think, Priestess Ling?” Lymee asked.

The shrine maiden smiled seeming to break character as she looked up and met Lymee’s gaze. Then the look of humor drained from her face as her eyes grew wide. “No way,” she gasped. Kitsune flicked her tail against Lymee’s arms a few times as if confirming to the Priestess that she was in fact not dreaming.

Seeming to regain some of her composure Ling looked around at all the others gathered around her. They all seemed as shocked as Ling was but for a whole different reason. To them Lymee had, without a moment’s hesitation, noticed the switch and immediately picked out the real priestess. Something they would think proved Lymee’s Divine status as this test was no doubt trying to ascertain.

“Please leave us,” Ling ordered her voice catching a bit in her throat. Without any protest all the women gathered deeply bowed their heads then turned and marched out of the room.

Lymee watched them leave, a smile on her face, until the door were shut once more leaving the two of them alone in the room.

“Is this some kind of jest?” Ling asked as soon as everyone was gone. “Did Lord Niimu put you up to this or something?”

“Well she did put me up to this,” Lymee said turning and walking back to where she had been standing previously. “But it is no joke none the less.”

“Then you are actually Lord Sun Su the Heavenly Fox? The gift from The Heavens?” Ling asked staying in tow behind Lymee.

“Little trivia,” Lymee said turning around to face the woman. “My late sister gave me both of those titles more as an honorary thing. While she did think that my arrival was a gift from The Heavens as a sign of their blessing and hence gave me the title Heavenly Fox because of that. She never actually intended people to take them literally.”

“Empress is something the matter?” Yoni asked marching in one of the side entrances. “I saw the Priestess leave with the rest of her precession.” Yoni came to a stop as she noticed the woman standing in front of Lymee. “Ah,” she said seeming to understand the situation.

“Priestess Ling,” Lymee said. “You remember my personal adviser Lady Yoni.” She gestured her hand at Yoni in introduction.

“Priestess,” Yoni bowed her head in greeting. “It has been a while.”

“
Lady
Yoni,” Ling noted the word signifying that Yoni was in fact not of noble birth. “And here I was convinced that Yoni and her brother were the nobles in hiding and you were their body guard.”

“I would make a terrible bodyguard,” Lymee stated smugly.

“What do you mean make,” Yoni snorted. “You made a terrible bodyguard, all three times we tried it.”

“I know see why Lord Niimu was so convinced of your divinity,” Ling stated. “And how you seemed to know things as if you had been told by The Heavens themselves.”

Ling hung her head and her shoulders started to quiver. Lymee thought the woman had started crying but then she threw her head back letting out a roar of laughter. She was laughing so hard and for so long that she started holding her sides in pain.

“Ah crap we broke the Priestess,” Lymee said hesitantly reaching out her hands trying to think of something she could do to calm her down. “I know this must come as a surprise to you and you must be disappointed to find that I’m not actually a fox nor am I actually sent by The Heavens.”

“You don’t think so?” Ling said trying to calm her laughter enough to talk. She reached up and brushed away a tear with the back of her finger. “I always thought you were my savior who was sent to me by The Heavens.  But I never thought that when I called out to The Heavens begging them to save me from those soldiers that they would do so with such humor.”

Ling seemed to notice the look of puzzlement on Lymee face and after quelling the rest of her laughter she proceeded to explain.

“Look at it from an observer's standpoint,” Ling said. “The Priestess to The Heavens was in trouble when seemingly out of nowhere the Heavenly Fox appears saves her then takes her away to a Temple where she would be safe and hidden from the Empresses men.”

Yoni seemed to find it funny and started laughing to herself.

“Coincidence,” Lymee stated rolling her eyes. “I was just in the right place at the right time. That’s all.”

“I do not believe in coincidence,” Ling stated.

“Neither do you,” Yoni pointed out to Lymee.

“Well I also don’t believe in The Heavens,” Lymee stated in a matter of fact tone.

“You do not believe because you do not want to believe,” Ling stated. “Your belief does not change the truth of their existence.”

“Priestess,” Yoni spoke up. “Don’t try. The Empress is rather open minded about anything except when it comes to matters of faith. Even if she saw a vision from The Heavens themselves she would still dismiss it as a dream or a hallucination.”

Lymee snorted shaking her head. Not that Yoni was wrong. Everything had a logical explanation that did not need the intervention of God or whatever. Things like gods or spirits were just things made up to explain things that at the time could not be explained. But just because the cause of something was unknown did not mean that there was not a rational explanation for it that did not involve some kind of higher power.

“Well you may not be convinced,” Ling stated. “But I am.” She flashed Lymee a warm smile.

“Couldn’t you just ask as The Heavens yourself?” Lymee said. “You are supposed to be able to talk to them right?”

“And I have,” Ling nodded. “And they told me that I would find the answer when I came to meet you. And they were right. While I do not think that you are actually some sort of Heavenly Fox Spirit there is no doubt in my mind that you were sent by The Heavens. Weather you know it yourself or not.”

“Great,” Lymee sighed. “And the rumors continue.”

“You should actually be thankful that I am so convinced,” Ling stated her rather humorous demeanor becoming serious once more. “Had I denounced you as a charlatan then it would have likely split this Kingdom in two with those who believed and those who did not. That I fear very well would have caused the civil war that you and Lord Niimu are working so hard to prevent. Not to mention given the lords that oppose you a perfect thing to rally behind. Deposing the faux fox as it were.”

“Oh, she thinks she’s witty,” Lymee rolled her eyes but she could not help but feel her chest tighten a little at her words.

While Lymee hated the idea of Ling going around telling everyone that she too was convinced that Lymee was some gift from The Heavens, she was right in that by doing so Ling would be putting a lot of minds at ease.

“Well my dad would always say that silence speaks volumes,” Lymee stated. “I say we stick to that philosophy.”

“Well,” Ling smiled. “For now at least we should discuss your coronation next week. This will be my first time doing anything like this so I will need the practice just as much as you will.”

“Please,” Lymee begged ready to not be talking about her supposed divinity.

“You will be happy to know that many Dynasty Lords will be in attendance,” Yoni stated placing her hands behind her back seemingly ready to move on as well. “Lord Niimu of Gon Dynasty, Lord Voy of Hong, even Lord Yung of Fu Dynasty.”

“I hate that woman,” Ling spat.

“Lord Yung?” Lymee asked. “You know her?”

“I have only met her once,” Ling explained. “And that was many years ago, but I knew even then that she was nothing but evil.”

“Why what did she do?” Yoni asked cocking her head in curiosity.

“She,” Ling pressed her lips together making them white. “She broke my toy.”

Lymee nearly choked on her own laughter as she tried her best to contain it.

“She said she just wanted to play with it and that she would be careful,” Ling shook her head as she thought about it, an actual tear coming to her eye. “But she wasn’t and sure enough she broke it.”

*** 

Lymee yawned deeply as walked down the deserted halls of the Palace. It was well into the night now. After her meeting with the Priestess she had to make other arrangements as well as her other duties as the Empress. For the first time in a while time had gotten away from her and before she knew it, it was almost midnight.

She was looking forward to taking a long hot bath then crawling into bed.

“Wait,” Lymee stopped looking around her at the unfamiliar surroundings. “Where the heck am I?” She looked down at Kitsune who was sound asleep on her shoulders. “Right because you don’t care either way,” Lymee mumbled.

Reaching over she cupped the side of the fox’s face and planted a kiss on her soft forehead. Kitsune was so cute in her smaller fox form. It was hard not to forget sometimes that Kitsune was not actually a fox. At least not in the normal sense.

Lymee decided that she would let the fox sleep for a little while longer at least. If she became too lost then would wake her.

Taking a breath Lymee picked a direction and started to make her way forward. She had a hard enough time learning the confusing layout of Su and Hu Palace and those were shacks compared to this place. Lymee was sure that she could spend the rest of her life here and never see all of it.

Kitsune then stirred on Lymee’s shoulder perking her head up as she peered into the darkness of the hallway.

“Something wrong?” Lymee whispered fearing what danger could have risen the fox from her slumber. Kitsune pawed at Lymee’s shoulder with one of her paws never losing focus on whatever was ahead.

As best as she could in her outfit Lymee crouched down and held out hand letting Kitsune leap off. But Kitsune did not dart off, instead she kept a very slow and deliberate pace so that Lymee could keep up. It would seem that whatever it was that she was hearing she wanted to make sure that Lymee found it as well.

Sufficiently curious Lymee kept eye on Kitsune as she followed. She doubted there was any danger or she would not be acting so casual. Which begged the question, what was happening that she was so interested in? 

Kitsune slowed to a crawl as she poked her head around a pillar. Then a hand suddenly appeared from behind the pillar and slowly reaching out petting the fox.

“What are you doing here?” came a soft voice from behind the pillar. The voice sounded hoarse and the person sniffed repeatedly as she spoke.